Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Jolly Good by Tigger Newling

You may have seen this Jolly Good on ebay last week. It caused a bidding surge of which I havent seen the like for a couple of years. I guess we can put this down to - 1. The importance of Tigger in 70s British surfing. 2. The rarity of Jolly Good (it only lasted 2 years). 3. The quality and artwork. and 4. a few guys with a lot of spare cash.
The eventual winner Shaun has sent in some nice photos of it. Its signed Tig May '76 , and would have been shaped by him and then glassed and finished by the guys at Tris surfboards - that was the jolly good deal. I guess by that stage Tig just wanted to shape and surf, and not get involved with the time consuming glassing and sanding and finishing of boards. Tigger does however recollect making this board - '' I remember the UFO lightning board. Can vividly remember doing the lotus flower crossbow deck design myself - it was on tissue paper laminated under the glass. Nancy Dinmore from Maui probably did the flying saucer spray art.''
Tig also says ''the price seems high - but it is some validation of the creativity that went into it I suppose - the shape and design were very 'custom' .''

Shaun says the last owner bought it 2nd hand in Perranporth in 1980.

Tigger at the Jolly Good factory at St Merryn

Quiver of JG's with Nancy Dinmore sprays.

Tigger at Porthleven 1976 on a Jolly Good

Another version of the logo, inspired by the Beano

Interesting photo which was forwarded on recently by Alex - it shows Richard Harris of Newton Abbot with his Tig 6'6 bought new for £42 (more because of the colour !) from the Newling garage shop at their house in Treyarnon around 1970 (when Tig was away in Australia for the world championships).
The white board is a 9'7 pop out bought from the Newlings at Treyarnon around 1966. Was one of the boards Richard had been hiring since '64; they were selling it for their milkman and it was the first pop out ever made in Britain.

Richard, Will and Dad at Harlyn, a year or two later , same two boards on the roof plus Dad's Bilbo. Original fin of pop out visible next to the slim Greenough inspired fin of the Tig.